For that very expensive price of a condo, Cambridge unit owners are given tenement style homes that are substandard and doesn't adhere to the building code. Worse, the buildings are located right above an earthquake belt, and two floodgates.
Empire East’s marketing strategy is to con and dupe the clients and show them model units from well built condos and tell the customers that in two years, or after the full payment of the condo, they will be able to get their titles.
But what title could Empire East give their clients, when the company has no proof of ownership and other groups are claiming the land? For so long, Empire East has been duping people into buying the tenement at the price of condos that are built over a dangerous earthquake belt, and over two creeks.
The Cambridge condo buildings lack drainage system, and the two creeks that run inside the area were leveled and blocked with filling materials, ten meters wide and 10 meters deep, damning the flood water during the typhoons Ondoy and Peping on September 2009.
During the typhoons Ondoy and Peping, P500 million worth of vehicles, personal belongings, and other propertiesof the unit owners were destroyed.
Cracks on the walls of the buildings only show how the substandard construction and materials used in the tenement style condos are slowly deteriorating. And there's no earthquake yet
The swimming pool, up to now is unsanitary because it was constructed 8 feet below the ground and there is no drainage system to siphone the dirty water out and no water system to replenish it with clean water.
And the unit owners pay for its maintenance but couldn’t use it. For three years, the water was never changed and has become breeding ground for mosquitos.
The building clusters were all designed and planned for medium rise condominium,which means they are supposed to be only 4-storey high. But when Empire East saw they could make bigger money, it raised the building into 12-storey high, without strengthening the foundations of the buildings.
With only the capacity of a 4-storey building, the raised 12-storey condos are very dangerous and could collapse at the next strong earthquake of 7.5 magnitude.
Since 2005, the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board has been issuing Cease and Desist Order to Cambridge because of its dangerous and substandard buildings.
condos are not supposed to crack. but cambridge has all the cracks
But instead of improving their buildings, Empire East still sell the units, targeting OFW families, Filipinas who are married to foreigners, and middle income Filipinos who were duped into buying what they thought were condos, but are really substandard tenements with cracked walls, lack drainage system, and located in a dangerous area of Cainta.
The unit owners who have been complaining and demanding that they get their money back are ignored by the government offices that are supposed to help them.
During the Arroyo Administration, Empire East’s Chairman of the Board Andrew Tan, has been linked as a close friend of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
We are hoping that in this administration, PNoy could extend a helping hand to the unit owners who have been duped by the Empire East. We are, after all, the people, who he said were his boss.
What makes the area more dangerous now is the substandard materials used int the construction of the buildings
Gumby on October 7, 2011 at 3:03 am said:
ReplyDeleteFirst and foremost our priority is to ensure that others do not get cheated as we were. There are more than 1,000 people that have been duped. All of the issues with regards to drainage, building construction, fire alarm/suppression systems not working, etc… are all secondary issues. The main issue is that Empire East Land Holdings Inc. (EEHLI) has knowingly entered into contracts with buyers illegally. EEHLI was issued several Cease and Desist Orders (CDO) for Failure to obtain a License to Sell, Failure to secure a Certificate of Registration. Failure to obtain a Permit to Build and Selling without a License to Sell. The CDO’s specifically read, “CEASE AND DESIST FROM FURTHER SELLING AND ADVERTISING YOUR PROJECT, CAMBRIDGE VILLAGE and from collecting monthly ammoritization payments from buyers until expressly permitted to to so by this office.” There are 164 complainants who have already filed a case against EELHI through the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB). This case has been ongoing for more than 2 years and it appears that the HLURB is not enforcing Presidential Decree 957 as they are empowered to. The HLURB is acting like a flock of sheep with EELHI being the wolves and some of the buyers are the sheep dogs. I say unit buyers instead of unit owners because we will never own the condos we have paid for. Since EELHI does not own the land they are building Cambridge Village on, the unit buyers will never be able to obtain a clean title for ownership. We have hit many obstacles with the local and federal government. The Cainta Fire Department has conducted fire inspections annually with the last inspection being conducted this past April. Cainta city engineers came in for an inspection and noted many building code violations as well as had the fire department come back in to address our concerns. The engineers verbally addressed the issues with Cambridge Village administration department. The administration department is operated by First Oceanic which along with EELHI iss a subsidiary company of Mega World. The fire department inspector came in and noted our concerns and also verbally addressed the issues with the administration department. There were more than 100 major discrepancies just within one building. We informed the fire department inspector that these are Life Safety issues and still no official report was submitted. We have heard rumors from solid sources that the Mayor of Cainta and the Barangay Captain were both given units within Cambridge Village. Many buyers are refusing to pay their association dues because of the fact that EELHI knowingly entered into contracts with us illegally. The Mayor of Cainta held a meeting with our attorney and a few of the unit buyers within the past 2 weeks. When the mayor was asked what he is going to do to help us obtain our money back from EELHI he stated, I am not here for that. I am here to help Cambridge Village obtain the association dues from the unit owners. At the present time, no government agency is helping the unit buyers as they are empowered to. There is a gross negligence on the part of the HLURB for not enforcing not only Presidential Decree 957, but also for not enforcing the Philippine law as they have jurisdiction over all of these issues. The HLURB is not conducting on site inspection as they are mandated to. Vice President Binay is overall in charge of the HLURB. When he was sent a letter from a unit buyer with regards to the issues here at Cambridge Village, he in turn sent the letter to the HLURB. President Aquino III has stated many times that he is taking a firm stance in stopping corruption in government and in the private sector as well. In our opinion this is corruption at its worst. This corruption involves not just private sector companies but also includes local and federal government. Prospective buyers beware!!!! There are more than 1,000 unit buyers that have been duped already. Don’t become a victim.
hank you Gumby for your honest, truthful, and very accurate representation of the problems that people at Cambridge Village have in addressing the many issues here. It seems no matter who you speak to or write to, it is increasingly difficult to trust anyone at any level. It seems very strange to me, that a governmental agency, the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB), which should have the final say in any development of land, seems to have no say or action in the development of Cambridge Village. The development and build of this project can be approved at local level, and yet HLURB has no powers to enforce anything, they cannot enforce the laws of the land, they cannot enforce their own Cease and Desist Orders, and they cannot even enforce their own Charter, to help and protect the public from unscrupulous practices. So, the developer, Empire East continues to build and develop the project. with no intervention from any party at all. There seems to be no coordination at all amongst any of the government agencies involved, and no communication with local government who are responsible for authorising the development and build of Cambridge Village. HLURB is renowned for its “red tape”, and for its mountains of paperwork, but it has been found lacking in following its very own procedural systems and an inability to threaten the stranglehold that Empire East has on this project. Six years of Cease and Desist Orders. along with iregular ocular inspections (these are meant to be every 6 months), shown HLURB grossly negligent in monitoring the development of Cambridge Village, and even worse is the fact that there is the continued selling of this project without any intervention from HLURB. HLURB should have enforced a Writ of Execution years ago, how many more orders do they want to issue to Empire East? How many more unsuspecting buyers are going to be duped into buying into a project controlled, run and managed at every level by Empire East, who continue to flought the very laws of this land? Despite the failings of HLURB, I do advise any prospective buyers out there looking at buying a condominium to check with HLURB on the legality of any development. Thank you Gumby for publishing the link already to HLURB!
ReplyDeletesogeumhucu on October 25, 2011 at 5:07 am said:
ReplyDeleteMy Husband and I recently moved out of Cambridge and was shocked to see it on the news (over TV 5′s Aksyon Weekend News) just last Saturday.
If only I could post the pictures here of what our 40sqm loft-type looked like… It felt like living in Maricel Soriano’s movie set T3. Truly as what you have said – it’s like living in a tenement… the Bronx of Cainta – as my husband would say.
We have been receiving notes from a certain Atty. Nolasco – the same person I saw on TV stating all the things that you have stated above. I didn’t want to believe it or parked the concern first until my husband and I experienced it for ourselves.
It’s a good thing that we just rented there. At one point, we even considered on having it as rent-to-own. Thank God that He has graciously given us wisdom to test the place first before considering to buy one.
If they were already issued a cease and desist order, how come there are tarpaulins posted along Marcos Highway, Imelda Highway and Libis – Pasig Manggahan area about this wretched place?
The only thing that I liked about Cambridge is the Security company – Guards. They’re very polite, patient and courteous. I dislike the people in the Admin office. Very disrespectful, arrogant and lazy.
I’m planning on putting a blog soon with my collated photos of Cambridge. I’ll make sure to add link this blog to my blog so that people who read it would know it’s not just some random thought to sabotage Cambridge.
Thank you for your comments.
ReplyDeleteWe are only try to make people aware of the problems at Cambridge Village. So it is always good to have an honest opinion on what the units are like.
The Security staff are very friendly, and yes, the admin staff not so, but our major issues still remain unresolved.
The TV5 feature at least exposed some of our issues, and has now resulted in his honour VP Binay sending in a composte committee to investigate the problems here.
Low cost condominiums means low cost build, and a loss of quality, although the developer would state differently.
Never mind the quality of the work at Cambridge, the main issues are still to be sorted.
Unauthorised selling, both on site and the internet. Also, reference the billboards that have gone up again on Floodway, we have been told they went up without any approval at local level. So Cainta municipal hall should have them taken down.
Continuing development of a project without approval from the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board.
Hopefully, the investigation committee will resolve any issues.